The film "Ju Dou", starring Gong Li and directed by Zhang Yimou, is adapted from Liu Heng's novella "Fuxi Fuxi", the film has made a lot of changes to the original work, whether it is the scene of the story, the relationship between the characters or the ending of the story, there are great differences, but both works reflect the female resistance in oppression, and the sadness of individual emotions disillusionment in the collision with the social world.
Ju Dou in the movie, in his early twenties, married Yang Jinshan, a dyeing shop manager in his fifties. Yang Jinshan had two wives, but both were unable to conceive children and were tossed to death by Yang Jinshan.
When Ju Dou was tortured by Yang Jinshan, she also thought that her own life was bitter, and when she heard the howl of the pig dying, she would think of her own situation and the end of death. But Judou is stubborn, and in the end she does not give in, she decides to look for reliance to change her fate.
Judou is not easy to deduce, because Judou is a contradictory role in traditional ethics. In order to make Ju Dou an image that can be accepted by the audience, the film crew made a huge change to the original work, in "Fuxi Fuxi", Tianqing is Yang Jinshan's nephew, and in the movie, Tianqing is the child of Yang Jinshan's neighbor and is adopted by Yang Jinshan. The change in the relationship between this character allows the audience to give a greater understanding of the development of Judou's relationship with Tianqing. Moreover, the film portrays Yang Jinshan's meanness, cruelty, miserliness, calculation, etc. many times, for example, he does not want to give Tianqing a family, he wants to continue to call this free labor, on the pretext that Tianqing has eaten his grain for thirty years; his concern for livestock is more than his love for Tianqing and Judou; he rides on Judou's body and humiliates Judou in every way. All these make the audience feel the rationality of Judou's empathy.
Tianbai grew up in a deformed family environment, heard and witnessed the chaos of family relations and the ridicule of villagers, in which it is difficult for him to grow up physically and mentally.
The shadow of the death of Yang Jinshan's two former wives hung over Ju Dou's life at all times, and the marriage in the old era was like a shackle for women, and it was impossible to get out after being put on, which made Ju Dou fall into despair, and she could only desperately find someone to rely on, which was the root cause of this tragic story. Ju Dou's resistance is brave and respectable, she makes people feel the beauty of the struggle, even if the ending is tragic, but it gives people hope, because it is the resistance of countless individuals that will form a progressive force to promote society.